Day 3
Mon. Mar. 29
English lesson: Identifying a specific focus
Speakers summarize Hofstede and Gelfand
Share examples from American Factory
Homework
➤ Identify a focus for your English study
Think about this question: What is one specific topic that you’d like to be able to communicate more clearly about in English, or one specific situation in which you’d like to be able to communicate more clearly in English?
Write up your thoughts in a paragraph (5-6 sentences or so) explaining what the topic/situation is and why you want to focus on it. Upload your paragraph to Box in the folder “3-Specific focus for English study.”
➤ Read excerpts from Hofstede’s writing
Read the excerpts from Chapter 2 of Cultures and Organizations and from Hofstede’s 2011 academic article “Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context.”
The excerpts from Chapter 2 tell the story of how Hofstede developed his Cultural Dimensions model. Don’t get too bogged down in the details here — just read quickly to get the general outlines of how the theory was developed.
The excerpts from “Dimensionalizing Cultures” explain the six cultural dimensions and give examples of cultural traits associated with each. Focus on the descriptions of the dimensions, and for each, ask yourself: Which side of the spectrum do you think Chinese culture falls on? (Make your own guess first before checking the answer on Hofstede’s website.)
➤ Take the World Values Survey
This is one of the surveys that Hofstede (and other researchers) have used to generate their models of “cultural dimensions.” Take it yourself! Then afterward, look at the complete survey form and ask yourself: What aspects of culture do you think these questions could be used to measure?
➤ Explore “Hofstede Insights” website
This is the website of a consultancy devoted to promulgating Hofstede’s ideas and applying them to business. Explore the website yourself: look around, try to understand who these people are and what the purpose of the website is. Come ready to share one interesting thing you noticed or discovered on the website.
➤ Write a paragraph or two in response to one of the two essay prompts
Your Essay 1 is due on Wednesday April 7 — please read the essay prompts and decide which one you find most interesting. Then, as a way of developing your ideas and getting some early feedback from me, please write a paragraph or two laying out your initial response to that question. (In other words, answer the question in just a paragraph or two, rather than an entire paper; you’ll write the entire paper later.)
Upload your response to the folder called “4-Response to Essay 1 questions.”